Edward J. “Jerry” Kelly co-founded Image Recovery Centers® with his wife, Marianne Kelly. A seasoned business executive with more than 40 years of healthcare management experience, Jerry serves as CEO and oversees all financial and operational functions for the company, including sales, contract development and accounting functions. He also develops feasibility studies for hospitals that are interested in opening an Image Recovery Center® onsite, and is credited as the creator of the successful "community model," which integrates the program into the hospital oncology department with little or no cost to hospital operations while assuring that the services are available to all patients regardless of ability to pay.

In addition to his work with Image Recovery Centers®, Jerry has held senior-level positions, such as president, chief executive officer, chief financial officer, and director with various leading healthcare firms, including MedStar Union Memorial Hospital, Helix Health System, Lutheran Health Systems of Maryland, Bon Secours Hospital of Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins Hospital, and Coopers & Lybrand (now PricewaterhouseCoopers). At Coopers & Lybrand, Jerry was a practice leader in their healthcare consulting practice and provided financial and operational advisory services to various leading healthcare firms in the Baltimore market.

Most important, Jerry, like his wife, is very passionate about helping cancer patients and others who have been traumatized by illness or injury improve their quality of life. For the past two decades, he has supported Marianne’s vision for Image Recovery Centers® with his business expertise, and is driven by his personal experience helping his daughter, his wife and other family members affected by cancer and other illnesses regain their confidence, feel better and focus on healing.

About Us

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The Image Recovery Centers® provide a comprehensive and supportive environment combining expertise, education, and clinically based solutions to help survivors manage the appearance-related side effects of cancer and cancer treatments, while restoring their self-image and improving their quality of life.

In other words, we know that helping you regain confidence in your appearance will allow you to feel better and focus on healing.

Marianne Kelly, a brain-tumor survivor, founded our organization in 1993. Marianne combined her real-life experiences with her aesthetic expertise to create a complete appearance rehabilitation program for cancer patients and others who may become challenged by an altered appearance. Over the past two decades, Marianne and her husband, Jerry, who manages the company’s sales and financial operations, have transformed Image Recovery Centers® from a single facility in Baltimore, Maryland, to a network of more than 20 centers. These Image Recovery Centers are now located nationwide in some of the most prestigious hospitals and health centers including Johns Hopkins Hospital, Memorial Hospital West, MedStar Franklin Square Hospital Center, The University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake Health, and more.

Each of our hospital-based Centers, as well as this online “virtual center,” offers a variety of specialty productsand services, expert advice, and educational information designed to support you during your recovery and beyond.

Every patient who visits a Center receives a complimentary consultation with a specially-trained staff member. Through this process, we develop an image plan designed to fit your needs and alleviate your specific side effects. Products and services include the following:

Marianne Kelly

Jerry Kelly

Marianne J. Kelly, who founded the first hospital-based Image Recovery Center® in 1993 at MedStar Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore, has held a lifelong, personal commitment to helping cancer patients improve their quality of life.

Marianne is a certified image consultant, with specialized training in makeup application, color analysis and wardrobe planning, a licensed professional hair designer certified in clinical cosmetology, and a certified mastectomy fitter. She is an expert in self-esteem rehabilitation through image enhancement, and has been recognized for her expertise by the American Hospital Association and is a past recipient of the Governor’s Award for Healthcare Volunteerism in Maryland and the J.C. Penny Golden Rule Award. Marianne has also served as a board member of the Children's Cancer Foundation and is currently a member of the Johns Hopkins Hospital Pediatric Oncology Friends organization. She is often asked by medical facilities and organizations to speak on the appearance-related needs of cancer patients.

However, it is her personal story that most directly influenced the creation of Image Recovery Centers®. As a teenager, Marianne suffered the loss of a sibling to leukemia. In 1976, cancer struck again when her daughter was diagnosed with leukemia. Although the child recovered fully, Marianne saw first-hand how dramatically cancer and cancer treatment can alter a person’s appearance and self-esteem. And then, little more than a decade later, Marianne herself was diagnosed with a noncancerous brain tumor and suffered the physical and emotional devastation of brain surgery.

By the time Marianne had recovered, she was determined to find a way to help others whose appearances -- and lives -- have been altered by illness and trauma. Her vision was to create a program based on the idea, informed by her training in image enhancement, that making changes to a person’s looks -- through hair and makeup, for instance -- can help her feel better and focus on healing. Not content to only serve patients in the Baltimore region she calls home, Marianne, with her husband Jerry, created a model that can be replicated at hospitals and cancer centers nationwide, and to date, they personally own and operate three Image Recovery Centers® and have opened more than 20 more.